Distribution networks are usually operated radially for protection coordination, and this radiality needs to be maintained while separating into microgrids. In [1]}, [2]}, [3]}, [4]}, [5]}, [6]}, ODNP is demonstrated on an already radial feeder and radiality is not explicitly enforced. This approach ignores normally open switches, and under-utilizes network flexibility. Radiality is considered in [7]}, but another restrictive condition is imposed- each microgrid is assigned exactly one DER. This single DER constraint is also present in [6]}.
In this approach, the number of partitions are predetermined, leading to sub-optimal solutions. A radiality constraint without specifying the number of microgrids was recently presented in [9]}, and the formulation in the current work builds upon this approach.
